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The bill after launch: hosting, maintenance and the real cost

Pricing
September 24, 2026

The project ends, the software doesn't

The day a system goes into production feels like a finish line. In reality that's where its real life begins. People start using it, so sooner or later something breaks, something needs changing, and all of that costs money. If nobody put it in the budget, the cost arrives anyway, as unplanned urgent fixes, which are the most expensive maintenance there is.

The items to look at are few and all predictable. Let's take them one at a time.

Infrastructure

This is what it costs to keep the system switched on. Servers, database, file storage, bandwidth, certificates, plus any third-party services for email, maps or payments. There's no universal number, because it depends on the load and on how much continuity has to be guaranteed. There is a principle, though: you size for the real load, not the imagined one, and you check it again every so often.

It's also the item where money is most easily wasted. Test environments left running, machines oversized "to be safe", backups kept for years with no rule. That money goes out every month without anyone noticing, because each individual figure is small. Reviewing infrastructure spend once a year takes little time and saves a good deal.

We keep infrastructure as a declared monthly fee, separate from development. That way it's always clear how much it costs to exist and how much it costs to evolve, and those are two different decisions.

Maintenance, meaning the things that change by themselves

Even software you ask no changes of needs work, because things move around it. Operating systems and libraries get security updates, browsers change their behaviour, external services update their interfaces and regulations change.

The trouble with this kind of maintenance is that putting it off only makes it cost more. A system updated regularly needs small, frequent interventions. One left alone for three years needs a whole project to make it secure again, and in the meantime a known vulnerability may have stayed open the entire time.

The simplest way to stop it slipping is to set a regular window, even a short one, for this alone. That time isn't taken away from features. It saves you having to take a lot more away later.

New features

This is the biggest item and also the only one that brings good news, because it means the system is being used. Requests come in once people have understood what the software could do, which is exactly what you wanted.

The cost, though, varies a lot depending on how you manage it. Collecting requests and dealing with them in batches costs less than chasing them one by one as they arrive, because every restart has a fixed cost. One person inside the company who filters them and sets priorities, even without being technical, counts for more than any technical optimisation.

After the first project we work on an ongoing development basis. Instead of a quote for every comma there's a steady flow, with priorities decided together, and the weekly haggling that otherwise wears everyone down disappears.

Support

You only notice it when you need it, and at that moment it matters more than anything else. The questions to ask, of us as of anyone else, are three. How quickly do you respond? How quickly do you fix things? And who answers if it happens on a Saturday?

Our projects come with six months of support after delivery, with urgent tickets handled within 24 hours and on-call cover 7 days a week. The on-call cover is in the agreement rather than being a favour for a simple reason: a system that runs orders or production doesn't stop on public holidays out of politeness.

The cost that never appears on an invoice

There's one item that weighs as much as the others and you won't find it written down anywhere: dependence on a single person. If only the person who wrote your system can change it, every future piece of work will be priced from a position of strength that isn't yours.

The defences are well known and cost little if you put them in place straight away. The code lives in a repository in your name. There's minimal documentation explaining how to set up the environment and how to do a release. And at least once, someone other than the author has done a release, to check it can actually be done.

This has nothing to do with distrusting the supplier. It's what keeps the relationship healthy, and a serious supplier will suggest it without being asked.

The two items you find out about late

Two costs almost never appear in the initial forecasts, and then turn up right on cue.

The first is third-party services. Sending email, maps, payments, digital signatures: taken one by one they cost little, but they grow with use. Better to know from the start which ones there are, how they charge and what the alternative would be if one of them changed its terms. You can't foresee everything. Finding out the month your volumes double is worse.

The second is data growth. An archive that accumulates documents, images or logs grows slowly and without pause. If there's no rule about what gets kept, for how long and what gets archived elsewhere, storage used and backup costs rise every year. Deciding in year one costs an hour's discussion. Deciding in year five means touching data that someone has meanwhile got used to finding always available.

How to keep the bill under control

Three habits are enough. Once a year, go through infrastructure spend with someone who knows how to read it. In the accounts, keep infrastructure, maintenance and new features separate, because mixed together they become a single number nobody can discuss. And decide in advance, every year, how much you want to invest in new features: without a ceiling, requests expand to fill whatever budget they find.

The price of the project is only the start of the bill. To know whether a piece of software was a good investment you have to look at the five years that follow as well.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to maintain software after delivery?

The cost splits into four predictable items: infrastructure, maintenance, new features and support. There's no universal figure, because infrastructure depends on the real load and new features on how much the system is used. Keep the items separate in your accounts so each one can be discussed on its own.

Can you put off software maintenance?

You can, but putting it off only makes it more expensive. A system updated regularly needs small, frequent interventions, while one left alone for years needs a project to make it secure again, with the risk that a known vulnerability has stayed open in the meantime.

How do I avoid depending on a single developer?

With three measures that cost little if you adopt them from the start. The code must live in a repository in your name, there must be minimal documentation on how to set up the environment and how to do a release, and at least once someone other than the author must have done a release.

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Ultimo aggiornamento: 24 settembre 2026

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Last updated: 24 September 2026

English translation for convenience. The Italian version prevails in case of discrepancy.

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Effective date: 17 November 2025

English translation for convenience. The Italian version prevails in case of discrepancy.

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Final notes

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